Not So Different After All
by purrpickle
Summary: With no one else around, Rachel turns to Dani to answer questions she has about the current person flirting with her. Of course, Dani's more of a hands-on person, isn't she? Daniberry, one-shot.


**A/N: **I don't own Glee or the characters within. This is a prompt from pointblanklove; there's a girl that hits on Rachel during her Funny Girl rehearsals, and Santana's got a late night class when Rachel asks Dani for advice because she doesn't know what to do. Cue, "I'll just show you - it's easier." Long enough to be its own fanfiction, so here you go. Thanks!

* * *

Rachel still has a troubled expression on her face when she arrives back to the apartment. Coming upon a barely faded blue-haired Dani drinking from the milk carton in the kitchen, she holds back her scathing remark. It isn't her milk, after all - it's Santana's - and it's not like Santana's not used to having Dani's lips and saliva in and around her mouth. Instead, she reaches past Dani to pull out her own bottle of iced tea she'd made earlier that morning.

Swallowing, rubbing the back of her hand over her mouth, Dani nods, grinning at her. Setting the milk carton onto the counter, she pauses, tenses, and jumps up next to it, her heels hitting the cupboards. "'Sup?"

'Sup. Rachel will never understand her generation's need to distill everything down into simple shortcuts. But, sighing, rolling her eyes lightly, Rachel politely lingers, resting against a sister-counter, her hip the only part of herself contacting it. She takes a sip of her tea before smiling just as politely as her body language suggests, "Not much."

Dani stares at her. "Uh-humm," she smiles, chin bobbing in the air. "And the lines on your forehead say what?"

"What?" Rachel blinks.

Dani's smile practically triples in size, her teeth shining in the light. "Rachel. Something's bothering you. So..." She shrugs, shaking her head with a _duh _expression keeping her mouth open, eyebrows arched, "Spill."

But Dani's not Santana. And it's Santana Rachel would normally turn to. Especially about something like _this_.

But then again, Dani _is _a lesbian, too. And here. It's true Santana has a late class, and, well, Rachel _really _can't keep this to herself anymore. Not to mention Dani probably wouldn't make as much fun as Santana would, now that Rachel thinks about it...

Looking down, Rachel makes up her mind. "...Fine," she sighs, throwing her head back and resettling on her feet, meeting Dani's eyes again, fingernails picking at the lines in her recycled-use water bottle, "There's this...

"_No_, wait." She holds up her hand. "Are you prepared to keep this just between you and me?"

Dani's eyebrows jerk up again. "Wow," she says, almost as if an aside and not completely conscious, "That heavy?" Still, bringing up her hands to lace together, she rests her chin on them, leaning over with her elbows on her knees. It's not exactly comfortable looking, especially as it looks like she's going to topple off of the counter at any second, but it's so _Dani _Rachel doesn't let herself dwell too much on it. "I promise," she agrees.

"Thank you." Rachel takes in a deep breath, then holds it before letting it out. "You know how I've been having Funny Girl rehearsals?"

"Mmhm."

"Well, they've been going very well. Almost flawlessly, if I may say so myself. And almost everyone in the cast is just _perfect_."

Dani looks curious. She tilts her head to the side. "Almost?"

Rachel feels a flush come to her cheeks. "There's... There's someone." She wonders if Dani will pick up the importance of her not going into it too much, of being without almost obsessive detail. She knows Santana would, but she doesn't know Dani as well, and neither does Dani her. She holds her breath in anticipation, watching the blue-haired girl from under her bangs.

"_Someone_? Or just..." Dani erases all significance from her voice, "Someone?"

Rachel's eye twitches. "Mostly the latter with shades... Of the former?" Able to hear the confusion in her own voice, she's not surprised when Dani jumps down, slams the milk back into the refrigerator, and takes Rachel's hand to lead her into the living room area.

"Okay, okay," Dani hums, pushing Rachel down onto the couch. Curling up next to her, legs under herself, she grins at her. "I'm _way _too curious now. _Spill_," she repeats.

Licking her lips, Rachel grimaces. "I just..." She tries again, "I know she's being serious, but I don't know if she's _serious_-serious." She doesn't look up to see Dani's reaction at the pronoun.

"As in flirting seriously?"

Rachel nods.

"Do you want her to be serious?"

Their couch is practically the same color as the fitted sweats Dani's wearing, Rachel notices. "I'm not sure." She looks up, appreciating Dani's mild look, "I mean, I've been straight for as long as I've known myself.

"Not that I don't know sexuality is always fluid and can change at any time, due to certain people or one's own personal preference not set on a rigid track," she adds.

Dani smiles at her. It's pretty, and Rachel finds herself smiling back, and, "Thank you for being so accepting," she pushes out. "I mean, you're not..." She sighs, one corner of her lips smiling ruefully, "Reacting like Kurt or Santana would."

"And that would be helpful, how?" Dani shakes her head, smirking, then plops her chin onto the palm of her hand, "I _am _my own person, you know.

"But anyway," she continues, asking honestly, "Is she attractive? To you? In general?"

And here is the crux of the whole thing. "Being attracted to her..." she admits stiffly, once again feeling out the ridges of her bottle of tea, "Is not the problem. I just don't know what to do. Wi-with her. With another female." Aware her voice has gotten higher, Rachel clears her throat, drawing her shoulders in on herself.

And suddenly Dani is laughing. "_What_?" Rachel snaps.

"Rachel. Rachel." Leaning forward, setting her feet onto the floor so she's not sitting on her legs anymore, Dani pokes Rachel's knees. "Why should it be any different than being a with a boy?" she asks.

She's so serious Rachel can barely stand it. "_Isn't _there a difference?"

"Aside from penis and stubble and lack of breasts much of the time," Dani smiles at her again, "No, there really isn't."

"But there _has _to be a difference!" Rachel blurts out, not really thinking clearly anymore, "...Doesn't there?"

Dani sits back, removing her physical presence from Rachel's space. She folds her hands on her thigh, meeting Rachel's gaze squarely, "Is someone's body _that _important to you? I mean, it's okay if it is, as, _hell yeah_, being physically attracted to and appreciative of someone can be _overwhelming_ and_ exciting_, but, Rachel, straight talk time." She smirks at her choice of words, "I've never pegged you for being completely hetero-orientated. Because, tell me." She scoots closer, her outer thigh now pressing tightly against Rachel's knees, "What, exactly, are you unsure about? That you'll ever want to kiss her? Be with her? Or if you're just transferring emotions, reacting to her because she's showing interest in you?"

The cap of Rachel's tea glances off of her teeth, and she blanches, leaning over to deposit it onto the floor next to the couch. She opens her mouth, but as nothing comes out, she sighs in frustration, glances up at Dani, and curls her hands around the bottom of her sweater. She doesn't know exactly how to put what she's feeling in words. She really doesn't. "I just... What if I don't..." she tries, "What if I really don't feel capable of being receptive? Because... Because I've always been straight?"

Even she knows how ridiculous that sounds. But still.

Tapping her finger against her lips, Dani purses them. There's still a sheen of amusement and support on her face, and Rachel's surprised to realize that she's not uncomfortable.

That is, until, sighing, shrugging, Dani scoots even closer, and, propping herself up on her palm behind Rachel, on the arm of the sofa, she swoops in close. "Then how about finding out? How about having _me_…" She smirks assertively, voice dropping into a whisper, "Kiss you?

"Don't worry," she continues, the heat of her breath blowing across Rachel's cheek, her other hand coming up to gently cup behind her ear to angle her into position, "I'll tell Santana." She searches Rachel's eyes, her own darker than before, "Kay?"

Frozen, Rachel stares at her. "Why are you doing this?" She's suddenly breathing shallowly. She doesn't know why she's suddenly breathing shallowly.

"Because." Dani smiles, dipping in even closer, "If I show you, it'll be easier. Won't it?" She smoothes Rachel's bangs back from her forehead, eyes following the motion, and it's surprisingly not making Rachel want to get away, "Let you see if there's really a..." Amusement colors her voice deeper, "_Difference_."

"Oh." Rachel swallows. "And you'll... You'll really tell Santana? F-for me?"

Dani's grin and almost imperceptible nod before her lips settle on Rachel's is all the answer she gets. It really isn't enough, _shouldn't _be enough, not really, but still, somehow, Rachel allows it.

And, _oh_, she thinks, seconds later, body and inhibitions thawing with each press and pass of Dani's lips, it her own fault when their tongues become involved, _maybe it isn't so different after all._

_No. Not so, _she groans, reflexively grabbing Dani's sides when she pulls back, staring up at her with a heated blush she just _knows _is covering her whole body from her cheeks down, _it's not so_ _different after all._


End file.
